Louisiana GOP crafts delegate plans for 2012 presidential convention

BATON ROUGE -- Even before fall statewide elections heat up, the state Republican Party on Saturday began planning how it will pick delegates to the GOP's national presidential nominating convention in 2012.

The Republican State Central Committee, the state party's governing board, voted 105-15 for a plan that will allow all registered GOP voters to help select delegates to a state convention in April. The delegates to that convention, to be chosen at a minimum of 30 caucus sites around the state, would then choose most of the delegates to the national convention.

Party Executive Director Jason Doré said Louisiana is expected to have 50 delegates to the national convention: 41 to be chosen by the April state convention and nine to be named by the party leadership, including major figures such as Gov. Bobby Jindal.

The state Democratic Party was scheduled to discuss its delegate-selection process at a meeting last week, but it was canceled because of flooding problems around the state.

GOP committee member Ross Little of Lafayette, the sponsor of the selection plan, said it is designed to include "grass-roots Republicans" in the process of picking delegates to the national convention in Tampa, Fla., which will nominate a GOP standard-bearer to oppose President Barack Obama.

"This is perfect for the tea party," Little said. "It allows the tea party (members) to go to a caucus and vote for delegates" to the state convention.

Longtime GOP stalwart John Treen of Metairie called for a delay in approving Little's plan. He said the plan was seven pages long and needed to be simplified. "It is more complicated than it should be," he said.

Based on the way the plan is structured, "we are going to elect ourselves" to go to the state and national GOP meetings, thwarting the chances of real grass-roots involvement, complained Rep. Kay Kellogg Katz, R-Monroe.

Before the April state convention, GOP caucuses will elect 25 delegates and 12 alternates from each of the state's seven congressional districts, for a total of 175 delegates and 84 alternates.

The central committee will pick another five delegates and two alternates from each congressional district, raising the totals to 210 delegates and 98 alternates.

The state convention then will elect 21 delegates to Tampa -- three from each of the seven congressional districts -- who will be uncommitted to a specific presidential candidate.

The state convention will also elect 20 at-large delegates, who will be committed to specific candidates based on the vote each candidate gets in a presidential preferential primary in March.

The new rules say a candidate has to receive at least 25 percent of the popular vote in the primary to be allocated "at-large delegates in proportion to the percentage of votes received." The remaining at-large delegates will go to Tampa uncommitted.

The other nine at-large delegates, those chosen by the party leadership, will also attend the convention unpledged to a specific candidate.

Treen said the large number of uncommitted delegates might make some GOP presidential candidates decide not to campaign in Louisiana.

The state meeting will also choose 20 at-large alternates and 21 alternates from the seven congressional districts.

The central committee, which has had trouble getting and holding quorums at some meetings, voted 97-8 for a bylaws change that would allow members to vote by proxy if they have attended at least one of the three previous meetings. Robert Morgan of Baton Rouge opposed the change, arguing that the party should find more dedicated members who can attend meetings.

After the committee lost its quorum Saturday, Doré said, the party's executive committee met separately to approve several resolutions, including one by Michael Bayham of St. Bernard Parish calling on the Legislature to pass a bill moving the state's presidential primary from the second or third Saturday of February -- depending on the Carnival parade calendar -- to the first Saturday after the first Tuesday in March.

If the state's primary is not moved back to March, the national Democratic and Republican parties could cut in half the number of delegates Louisiana will be allowed to send to the two national conventions next year.

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Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.